Burnt Orange Report

New Dallas Blog

By Byron LaMasters

Martin Frost may have lost, but his campaign organized and worked precincts in Dallas county that hadn't been worked by Democrats in decades. Case in point?

Take a look at the blog set up by the Precinct 1117 Democrats in Dallas County. It's a group blog by Democrats in their northwest Dallas precinct.

Precinct organization makes a huge difference, and these guys have the numbers to prove it. Here's what they accomplished compared to the 2000 presidential election:

• 75 new voters showed up in our Precinct.
• The Dems gained 140 New Votes for Pres.
• The Reps lost 20.
• We showed an 8% gain in votes for Kerry over Gore (40% vs. 32%). This is 4 times the average change in Dallas County. (This in spite of the fact that the work we did was mostly for Frost).
• Because we went over 600 votes, we get another delegate to the State Convention.
• Martin Frost garnered 45% of the vote in our precinct which historically has a 32% Democratic average.
• We started a community of friends and have forged bonds with neighbors we didn’t know existed.
• Last but not least, WE KNOW WE ARE NOT ALONE!

Precinct organization is easy. Anyone can do it, and organizing your own precinct and talking to your neighbors is perhaps the most effective way to make a difference.

I did get a little criticism when I posted how despite Texas Republicans urban problems, Democrats margins in coming years from urban counties still won't be enough to win statewide on a regular basis for at least another decade or so. Demographic inevitability is happening. Democrats will be the majority party in Dallas and Harris counties without much effort within a few cycles. Having said that, whether Democrats will be able to use that advantage to win back county governments, to pick up seats in the state legislature and to offset the Republican margins statewide in rural and suburban counties depends entirely on whether Democrats can regularly organize precincts countywide each election year in the future -- because we won't have Martin Frost spending four million dollars to get out the vote again.

Via alandwilliams.